Who doesn’t love some fun stickers?! As an effective reward in motivating young minds in their studies, I have come to have a greater appreciation for them in recent years. What am I saying? I’ve always loved stickers, they are super fun to stick on things! Things like practice charts, books, foot charts, beginner box violins and the like. The research is clear; loving encouragement, appropriate praise, and small, sustainable and reasonable rewards tied to achievement and specific standards are all effective and positive ways to reinforce learning and develop internal motivation. Though it sounds rather innocuous, I thought I might share a few things I’ve discovered about using stickers in a music teaching environment.
Not all stickers are great for sticking on music books.
Stickers come in a thousand varieties and with all those choices come a few constraints. Some are puffy, have layers, or are crystals that come with adhesive backs (see above). 3D stickers are awesome, of course, but not practical for sticking to the top of every page in a book. Pretty soon it’s an inch thick in some places and all that space makes room for pages to get crumpled or torn. It is also a strain on the book binding, even if it’s just a few staples. Another thing I’ve learned – kids love BIG stickers. When presented with the option of which sticker to choose of a bunch more often than not the student will pick the biggest one. This is not atypical, and who wouldn’t want more sticker for their parents’ dollar? But not all incredibly large stickers will fit into that quite small space between the side of the song title and the top of the page. So choose stickers that are flat and not too large to fit in the given space without covering up anything printed.
Have a nice selection of gender neutral or obvious “boy” stickers
I don’t want to encourage or promote traditional gender biases, but I will say that not all boys get stoked about cupcakes and kitty cats. I myself was raised frolicking in the forest so I have no problem with girls being into bugs, getting dirty, slimy animals or monster trucks or whatever. It’s simply a matter of personal taste. So to be accommodating to the male students I have a few sheets of what *some* would consider to be more boy-oriented sticker fare. Stars and spaceships have been popular around here lately.
Be aware of the affect stickers have on your budget.
Some can be quite expensive. The fancier sheets used for crafting and scrap booking can be several dollars for only several stickers. This is not cost effective for any teacher, music or otherwise. And if you teach in the public school system – forget about it! The remedy for this is to shop the sales, be aware of how many per sheet and how many sheets are included in a pack, and shop online. There are a myriad of teaching resources that offer adorable stickers in substantial quantities at very reasonable prices. Some would be Music Motion, Teacher Created, and Hobby Lobby.
So get silly with stickers and bring some sparkle and whimsy into your teaching!
That Violin Vibe 